WA Government bid for Australia’s first space agency to built in the west

Camera IconThe WA Government wants the country’s first space agency to built in the State. Pictured: China's Shenzhou 11 spaceship onboard a Long March-2F carrier rocket takes off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center. Credit: AP

WA has the geography, capability and expertise to house Australia’s first space agency, the State Government is set to argue.

Science Minister Dave Kelly will today release a report on WA’s space industry capability, making the case for basing the multimillion-dollar agency in the west as competition intensifies between potential host States and Territories.

“WA is the perfect fit for the Australian Space Agency and I’m calling on the Federal Government to base the agency here,” Mr Kelly told The West Australian.

“Growing the space industry in WA will create local jobs, provide more opportunities for our local businesses and help diversify the WA economy.”

The report, commissioned by a steering group led by WA Chief Scientist Peter Klinken, found the State’s southern hemisphere location and latitude were ideal for space situational awareness and facilities contributing to the global coverage of space assets, including tracking of launches.

It also found WA has “substantial capability” in the development and use of space-derived applications, with 74 of the 98 international and Australian companies operating in the space sector understood to have a presence in the State.

Bolstering WA’s bid for the agency, the report points to the European Space Agency’s likely expansion of its deep space tracking facilities at New Norcia, the Pawsey Supercom-puting Centre’s significant computational capability and NASA’s work with oil and gas giant Woodside on robotics technology.

The NASA-Woodside collaboration demonstrates the potential for WA industry and research institutions to move to the forefront of robotics and remote operations, it said.

Other advantages were WA’s integral part of the multibillion-dollar Square Kilometre Array in the Murchison, defence space facilities in the State’s north and strong space programs at WA universities.

“WA has important comparative advantages that create opportunities for the space industry,” the report says.

“The strength of the agricultural, mining and offshore oil and gas industries, and their demand for advanced space and spatial services, provides an ideal environment for West Australian companies to build competitive advantage in servicing these areas.”

Professor Klinken said opportunities for WA to contribute to Australia’s space industry were “significant and exciting”.

“I am delighted that the review of WA’s space industry highlighted the same sort of capabilities and opportunities that the Federal Government’s own space industry capability review highlighted,” he said.

Last month’s Federal Budget allocated $26 million to underpin the national space agency over its first four years of operations.

Former CSIRO boss Megan Clark will head the agency and starts work on July 1.